inside letters 6 ransberry 9 events 11 classified 29 fyfl the high cost of g minor hockey worries new president of stouffville association community calendar event stoufiville lions strawberry festival bbq when today 47 pm where stoufiville memorial park wrrlkhtircfihstoiulfvilte public llbrrj e bored with t running or cycling try adventure racing on for size serving whitchurchstouffville since 1888 50 cents including gsty 32 pages thursday june 27 2002 housing crunch gets help from the region builders like incentives for affordable homes by jeff mitchell staff writer builders are prepared to buy into york regions efforts to create more affordable housing provid ed the right package of incentives is on the table according to an industry representative if the proposal is right and the program is right there are a number of members very inter ested in this said jim murphy director of government relations with the greater toronto home builders association hes optimistic the regions efforts to cut costs for builders combined with new federal money aimed at subsidizing con struction of rental units will kick start construction of lowcost housing now that the federal pro gram has been announced and the moneys there i think youll start seeing it roll out in the next six months mr murphy said the region will look to the pri vate sector to play a significant role in the creation of affordable housing under a strategy unveiled recently by sylvia patterson yorks director of hous ing the strategy sets a goal of 200 new affordable units a year 100 of them regionbuilt nonprofit spaces with the remainder to be built in partnership with the pri vate sector it is hoped as many as see apartments page 10 flying the festival flag p rfj staff photosteve somerville chuckleberry the mascot of the whitchurchstoufrville strawberry festival will be a busy berry this weekend the annual festival kicked off last night and runs through mondays canada day events activities take place in downtown stouffville and memorial park see the stouffville suntribunes festival guide with todays paper or call 905 64berry for more information to reach us 9051 6462612 private firms et counci nod for old town supporters of other proposals boo yell at council meeting by joan ransberry staff writer the plan to turn the old stouffville town hall into a multipurpose centre and to return the municipal offices downtown was shot down by yvhitchurchstouffville council tuesday night instead the town will explore turning the top floor of the centuryold landmark on civic avenue over to an archi- turalengineeering group and have the bottom floor of the all- brick building become a com munity cultural centre hous ing art groups including the atre before picking arrowsmith architectural group and its partner george bell engineering either to lease or buy the ground floor for com munity use council listened to three other proposals tuesday bruce arrowsmith told council he plans to restore the building ensuring its heritage is preserved as well major landscaping is included in the plan there will be plenty of suesherban councillor will keep up fight for her theatre municipal office plan public access to memorial park i will create a pedestrian link promised mr arrowsmith i have said all along i am not going to spend 4 or 5 mil lion on a new building said mayor wayne emmerson i support the arrowsmith pro posal we will work with the arts and cultural community to see if we can use the bottom floor we can explore this well see about a theatre we can work together the decision process was see sherban page 5 mm our phuo opsi corns sjjjoy c special power steering flush 7995 5995 2 wheel alignment inspection with print out 5995 3995 includes toe adjustment only 4 wheel alignment inspection with print out 9495 6995 includes toe adjustment only 2 wheel alignment a power steering rush with print out 13990 8995 4 wheel alignment power steering flush with print out 17490 1 0995 ufensurancemniiesrrfs taxprermwn0tmrr6kes as 9054712311